As I listened to the President’s State of the Union address last night I couldn’t help but remember the same speech eleven years ago when another President described the ‘Axis of Evil.’ If you’ll recall the Axis included Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The only thing worse than an Axis of Evil is a Nuclear Axis of Evil.

In case you’ve been on a low information diet this week… North Korea apparently detonated another nuclear weapon amid a blitz of anti-U.S. rhetoric.

North Korea appeared to have conducted its third underground nuclear bomb test Tuesday, as the U.S. Geological Survey reported a seismic disturbance centered near the site of the secretive regime’s two previous nuclear tests.

The area around the reported epicenter of the magnitude 4.9 disturbance has little or no history of earthquakes or natural seismic hazards, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps. The disturbance took place at a depth of about 1 kilometer, the USGS said.

There were no initial reports concerning the activity on the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday.

“It’s a nuclear test,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. “That magnitude and that location — it’s awfully unlikely it’s anything else.”

North Korea is currently run by 27 year old Kim Jong Un, the third generation of the Kim family to run the Stalinist state (can you be a totalitarian, Stalinist regime and also be a monarchy?). North Korea also has an established military trade relationship with another card carrying member of the Axis of Evil…Iran. Iran makes no secret that it badly wants a nuclear capability to marry up with it’s established missile technology. Nukes, the axis of evil and a 27 year old with his finger on the button…what could go wrong?

Keeping an eye on national and international news will definitely help keep you motivated to work on your preps lately…